


Some Nightmare

by Rachy



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Flashback, Friendship, Gen, Goldenlake, Minor Character Death, Post!WOTE, smackdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-26
Updated: 2012-06-26
Packaged: 2017-11-08 14:27:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachy/pseuds/Rachy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daja has a nightmare, and Briar is awake. </p>
<p>Written for Goldenlake's 2011 SMACKDOWN.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Some Nightmare

_I thought we were friends!_

The thought reverberates through his head, scalding, sharp, and not his own. Flashes of fire, ashes of buildings, the face of a man, his eyes not leaving his own as the silvery glint of flames swarm around his face, burning red and hot before they engulfed him in the smoke. The dullness of the night surrounding him is broken by deep gasps, choking breaths, and he looks across the campfire he has created, smoke billowing against his intentions. 

Daja sits in her bedroll, pulled tightly around her shoulders, shivering in what he knows is not from the chilly air. She glances around her, breathing deeply, but the huddled forms of Sandry and Tris do not move, curled in their positions around her. 

“Some nightmare.” He says softly, not wishing to wake Sandry or Tris. She looks up, and he pokes the embers with a stick, watching as leaves catch sparks and flame away. She sighs, and wriggles out of her bedroll, feet padding against the undergrowth, to sit on the log next to him. 

“If only.” She says quietly, her breath steaming the air. 

“Did you want to talk about it?” He asks, striving to sound nonchalant as he prods the coals again.

“Do you want to talk about the nightmare you had?” He scoffs.

“Didn’t go to sleep.”

“Briar.” The slightest teasing disappears from her voice, and she takes his hand, her warmth flooding into his icy hands. 

_I’ve already been caught on the sly by the might of one Emperor. Didn’t want to do the same now._ His nightmares take care of that enough, in the scant sleep he allows himself as morning edges closer and the sky begins to light. Daja’s hand tightens on his, and he lets his head lean against hers.

_But I’ve promised you girls I’ll get my head checked to make sure it’s screwed on properly once we get home._ Daja had been the least insistent about his visiting a soul healer, Tris had cornered him on occasion with intense and reproachful looks, Sandry had only fallen short of fulfilling the threats she threw casually at him while riding and reinforced by bond nudging, decreasing in subtlety. _And it was you who had the nightmare which then gave me flashes of it._ She stays quiet, in voice and in bond, and he smiles ruefully. 

“I won’t pressure you.”

“It wasn’t the living metal, that hammered me to pieces. I, I thought he was my friend. I cared for him.” 

_I cared for him, and he was killing people to make a point, to prove his power. He understood fire, made me think he cared for me in return, made me think he understood, appreciated me, and he was using me. I couldn’t see it was him, I prayed to Trader Koma and Bookkeeper Oti that it wasn’t him, that someone had framed him, that I hadn’t been so much of a fool to have given him part of us to go and set fire to a hospital and leave me to be the one to pick up the pieces and listen to all the ones I couldn’t save scream to their deaths, and then be the one who had to force him to see what he’d done. What I’d trusted and cared for had become. Always was. And then once I knew what he had done, I had to watch him die, and I still cared for him enough to make sure he didn’t suffer. And I hated it._

“I haven’t had the nightmare in months. I was so wary, at home, and now” She sniffs, brushing at her eyes, and he looks back to the flames, putting his arm across her shoulders.

“You’re more emotional. Weaker. Berenene, Rizu. We’re all on edge, smoke in weak sleep. I’ve had less triggers.”

She stays quiet, snuggling closer to him, and he watches the flames simmer down, to flickers surrounded by white ash, the chill sweeping closer around them, still warm from the heat of Daja’s body before he realises that she has fallen asleep, nestled against his shoulder.


End file.
